BE WARNED! If you are considering using AIT - Advanced Internet Technologies, in North Carolina, to host your web site, you may
want to look elsewhere. They are apathetic, incompetent, and may sabotage your business as they did mine. They look good on paper, but their testimonials are only from their satisfied customers. That certainly doesn't include me.

Here's my tale:

I switched to AIT in September or October of 1997 since my first host did not allow for reselling of space. AIT seemed to offer all that I was looking for and at reasonable rates. For awhile, I was satisfied with hosting with them (except for their screwy billing). I had a server 2 account. In July of 1998, I was supposed to be upgraded to a server 3. One of the new domains I was hosting expected to use a lot of space and the upgrade was necessary. I spoke with technical support and billing and they were in accord, they would be able to waive some overcharges since I was upgrading. I expected the upgrade was done, especially since my invoices from that point on were in an amount commensurate with server 3. Every month, the bill was in a higher amount and I sent them a money order to pay for it. The invoices were not detailed and I didn't look at them any more for other than the amount.
All was well for a few months, or so I thought.

Around March of 1999, I became aware of the fact that the upgrade to server 3 had never been done. After speaking with billing a few times, I asked Mary Fuller, the billing manager, for a detailed statement of charges
since July of 1998, when the upgrade was to have been made. I was told that this information was available online for January 1999 forward, and that the previous year's statements would be mailed to me in a few days.
They never were.

In May of 1999, I received a notice that permission had been changed on my cgi files because my site was using too many resources. I was not consulted with, advised of remedies, or treated with respect, as any ethical company would have done. AIT decided to sabotage my account and disabled several programs. So much for the unlimited hits and my own cgi-bin files that I contracted for.

I protested and asked that my programs be enabled. My next four responses were met with apathy. AIT did not respond at all.

The next protest met with a moronic response that did not address the issue. Their answer " we examined your account and did not find any problems". At this same time, I had problems with a cgi program and could not fix it since I had no access. I asked AIT for help, reminding them that they revoked my
permissions and I was unable to do it myself, and got none.

I knew I had to make a change. I can forgive mistakes, we all make them, but you can't fight apathy, incompetence, and low intelligence, not to mention a poor attitude. I began looking for another hosting
company. Since any change I made affected the business sites that I hosted, I had to be careful in my selection and could not make a hasty move. I found a suitable company in late June 1999 and opened an account. I
began transferring files to the new server. Because of the change and AIT, I incurred $350 in setup/ transfer fees moving to a new server, fees which I could not pass on to customers.

On July 15, I submitted a change to Internic, moving all the domains I host to the new host. I did not transfer my own as I had to have an important cgi program working on the new site first. On Friday, July 17, several things happened. The other domains I host were now on the new server. I got that cgi program working, and I submitted a testimonial to AIT that I challenged them to add to their site.

I finally got a response from AIT, and you can read it below. When I responded to it, they disabled my account completely, making my domain inactive, cutting off access to my e-mail (which I received and sent through my server with them). It was their parting shot at me, their last evidence of a poor attitude.

You might not ever have problems with them, but with so many companies to choose from, why would you want to do business with a company that treats any of its customers so badly? If they did it to me, they could do
it to you!

-----Original Message-----
From: {me} [mailto:myaddress]
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 1999 11:14 PM
To: success@aitcom.net
Subject: Testimonial

Here's a testimonial I challenge you to add:

When I decided to change hosts so that I could offer web sites at less than usual for my customers, I shopped around a bit on the Internet. Someone told me about AIT and it looked promising. I signed a customer up and then became one myself, transferring several domains I host. For a while, I enjoyed the greater options afforded by AIT.

Then the problems began. Billing has always been a problem. Charges are not clearly explained and invoices arrive days apart from each other, even when there are no new domains added. An upgrade to server 3 was never done, yet the invoices that followed were in amounts of the higher priced server 3. When this was discovered months later,
AIT said they had no record of the request of upgrade despite me having spoken with some
support managers on the issue. A promised review and mailing of detailed invoices
never happened.

Then, in what I consider a deliberate act of sabotage, AIT changed permissions on my cgi files and directories located beneath them. They claimed my account was using too many
resources. A reputable and ethical company would have consulted with me first, explained the situation, and advised remedies (such as upgrades). AIT took none of these actions. It crippled my account and rendered several programs inoperative. My messages and protests were met with silence - no response, except for once. I got a moronic response -"we have examined your account and found that there are no files missing" which is not what I had said.

I had to endure the apathy, indifference, and moronic reply while searching for a new host. Since I host several domains, anything I did affected them so I could not make a hasty move. I was forced to absorb several hundred dollars in transfer costs in moving to another server, after I found a suitable company. My days at AIT are near an end as I write this. I doubt they will add it to their testimonial section as it reveals their worst traits, things they don't want you to know.
Their offerings look good on paper, and fortunately, there are many other companies to choose from, companies that don't sabotage their customers and cripple their accounts. I suggest you look for one of them.

Subject: RE: Testimonial
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 09:03:18 -0400
From: "Beau Garcia" <bgarcia@aitcom.net>
To: <me>

X,
is there something we can assist you with? You seem a bit frustrated about both billing issues and our shutdown policy for excessive cgi usage. We strive to constantly improve our total customer service daily.
I have read over your letter in depth and investigated the matters on your behalf. I have learned the following:
the upgrade to a server 3 was never completed due to the contract not being filled out completely
the disk space issue has been ongoing with you for at least 4 months your huge logs have caused problems on the shared solution machine you occupy
the billing department manager (Mary Fuller) has spoken to you personally and given you access to your online billing area so that you could look up your charges, item by item if you like.
With all of this said, I would suggest that you upgrade to a server 4(dedicated machine) for the following reasons:
1. You will not be charged further for high disk space usage ever again.
2. You will not have your cgi-bin chowned to root because the resources are yours alone to use as you see fit.
3. You can upgrade the machine whenever you need for a one time price ( we do not charge higher monthly fees for higher RAM or Hard drive sizes)
4. You have a 10megabi

I assume this is a awful host ... I can see AIT is almost same as iServer becuase the hosting feature almost matched them or maybe they are a reseller.

After reading with interest the problems Duster had with AIT (I had considered using them), I can guarantee that I will never use AIT! And, in all frankness, not so much because of what Duster said (although that in and of itself is enough), ... but because of the response from Beau Garcia ... everything he said was accusitory, ... "YOU did this wrong" and "YOU did that wrong" to Duster, ... definitely NOT what I would call good customer service!! Thanks Beau, you saved me a lot of heartache and frustation!!!!!

I included the unedited e-mails between us so anyone can see their poor service and attitude without reying on my word alone. Had I not have already transferred the domains I host to another server when AIT shut me down, I would have sued them in a class action suit as they would have financially impacted on my customers (and probably me if they left me as a result).

They are an awful host. Beau Garcia should change his title to Customer Disservice Manager or Customer Lack of Support Manager.

There are a lot of other awful hosts out there, and your odds of getting a decent one are just a little better by skipping this one.

Just an update of what AIT is up to currently...

I've been using them for several years now
(Yes. I am a very patient person...), but
my recent experiences with them finally got me
shopping for another host.

Here's a list of my experiences with them:

SQL Server
Tried to use their SQL Server. Was told several times via email that all I had to do is to select the 'Start SQL Server' option in the control panel. Well, problem was, there was no such option! It took them about 6 emails and several weeks to confirm and fix this problem.

Perl Libraries
I needed to use several Perl libraries (CGI, LWP, etc.).
Even after supplying tech support with error logs and test scripts, they still kept claiming that those libraries are installed and functional, whereas that was obviously not true. Again, it took them several WEEKS to actually test the Perl installation on my host and to correctly re-install the libraries.

Domain Change
In order to use a secure certificate we needed one of our sub-domains to become the main domain. I smelled trouble, but was assured (by the support supervisor) that this will be a straightforward procedure. Well - the 'straightforward' procedure took about a week, with extensive downtimes for both domains involved, plenty of lost emails, hours on the phone, and some very unhappy clients...

'The last drop'
A couple of weeks ago we had a situation happening twice within one week where, when accessing the main site, you were greeted with an error message 'Payment Required'.
(And yes, our accounts are paid by credit card, and were current.)This went on for about half a day each time; with calls and emails having no effect whatsoever. Tech support claimed they couldn't reproduce the error, and basically told us to sit and wait. I (and my clients) can deal with a server that's just plain down. But seeing a 'Payment Required' message when visiting the site, that's beyond embarassing. (Especially if it's inappropriate.)
In both cases AIT admitted that it was their fault later.
(A phone support supervisor actually had the nerve to claim this was an ISP problem; even though I told her that this error appears from several ISPs throughout the country...)

Well, that's my experience, and I hope it might be a warning to someone else considering AIT...

What happened Duster? Why are you no longer registered?

Check the date! I think this was one of Dusters first posts.

Yes, this would be one of Duster's first posts (if not the very first - correct me Duster :)) about his poor experiences with AITCom. I believe it still rings true, 8 months after his initial posts.

It was indeed my very first post here. AIT has not changed for the better. I have read other, more recent, complaints about them. Billing is a perennial problem with them. A friend of mine, who dumped them a while back, was billed for the month before he signed up with them. It took months to get them to take it off his bill.

In response to his questions about why his accounts were so slow and often inaccessible, their response (when he finally got one) was "the Internet always slows down in the afternoon."

AIT must have a list of stupid excuses to tell their customers. They sure don't believe in the truth.

AIT (Advanced Internet Technologies, http://aitcom.net/index.html ) is also a spam haven. Check http://spamhaus.org/ for a list of spamming hosts you should avoid. If you check their list against the headers of spam you receive, you'll see that the list is dead accurate. It'll also show you how much time you're wasting reporting spam to those hosts...

You know what's funny - After reading all these messages about AIT and also other message boards regarding web hosts and customer reviews it seems no one has anything good to say about any of these "great" hosting companies.

[Edited by matthew on 10-10-2000 at 09:23 AM]

Which 'great' companies in particular Matthew? (apart from AITcom) :)

matthew,

There's nothing the least bit funny about a hosting company throwing a temper tantrum like a bratty child and disabling your account (and crippling your business) because you aren't happy with their poor service and idiot answers. There are a few good companies out there and there are comments on this forum.

However, out of the over 16,000 hosting companies, there are a lot of bad ones with deceptive, even fraudulent practices, and we do warn about them. In fact, out of the 16,000+, I suspect there's a 13,000 way tie for last as regards service.

If you see more criticism than compliments, it's because of the many charlatans out there.

Thats right. Its an industry that needs alot of attention. And I know what you are talking about Duster. Last year I was involved with Interland with co-located servers and they practically put me out of business with no customer service, no knowledgable technical support, and the slowest and network that is about as good a 2 cups connected by a string. But they are rated nymber # by NT magazine. So you get decieved and you think they are good. The best thing is a forum like this to get the word out about these companies so people can make an informed decision.

I just discovered WebHostingTalk, and was checking out DialToneInternet as a possible new hosting company: there was lots of helpful info; so much so, that I figured I ought to return the favor, by sharing a little of what I know about AIT.

I'll wait till later to post some additional info, since my sites are still at AIT. It would be imprudent to say too much until I've successfully moved them away from AIT.

But, I'll offer a couple of observations.

Many of AIT's techs try hard, but virtually all of them are undertrained for their jobs, and some of them seem to be barely more knowledgeable than the typical AOL users . . . and NO, I am NOT exaggerating. I saw Beau Garcia's name mentioned above: my experience has actually been that he's one of the two people there I've corresponded with who actually know something. He's given me straight (if unsatisfying) answers, when I was getting meaningless gobbledegook from the junior techs.

Regarding hosting, I should say that my sites have been up better than 99.5% of the time, and that STATIC pages are usually served quickly, but . . . don't plan on anything depending on Perl or PHP, or any type of dynamic page being served properly, and don't plan on any customer support. I suppose, if you have a bunch of small static sites, with few or no scripts and no dynamic pages . . . and are willing to put up with an ignorant and powerless tech support department, they are a cheap option.

But, as noted above, AIT constantly announces all sorts of new features: plan on them actually WORKING a year or so after they are announced. Do not count on ANY CPU intensive feature ever working properly!

Their billing is interesting. Some months, they send me no bills and just charge my card. On other occasions they have sent 3 or 4 copies of a single invoice. On one occasion, when I called to complain, the billing person told me the problem must be with my email service. I confess: I flamed on, and pointed out to her in impolite language that AIT WAS my email service, with respect to that address! She admitted no errors.

When your card expires, they do not send a notification email, requesting an update expiration date: they just send out a notice of cancellation to take effect in 5 days. They will not accept an over the phone: you must submit online. But, when you do, there will be no confirmation . . . and they may lose the update! You'll find this out when your sites go dead.

This happened to me recently, and was the proverbial last straw. If it happens to you, plan on hours of phone calls and faxing to resolve the problem. The billing person I spoke to told me that it was my responsibility to call in and verify that they'd updated my record . . . although their site discourages phone calls.

In both their billing and tech support departments, they discourage phone calls, and emphasize their 'state of the art' trouble ticket system. My own experience suggests that 1 of 3 tickets go straight to /dev/null. The remaining ones are read by techs who can't understand the question.

Their standard response is a request for a trace route, to verify that the problem is not outside their network. They serve this up on all occasions, such as when I asked why PHP did not appear to be installed.

There's more, but I'd better hold off.

Meanwhile, a final warning based not on my experience (yet!), but on that of posters at other sites. When you DO finally cancel your AIT account, be sure to do so by Registered Mail, AND by fax, and be sure to mail and fax copies to your card company at the same time. If they do not immediately cancel the accounts, follow up with another set of mail/fax cancellations, but this time add the local BBB to the cc list. It's taken some folks months to get the billing stopped, and several of them had not recovered the overcharges.

In my case, I'll also send emails to Beau Garcia, since he's at least been fairly honest and knowledgeable in his replies, though mostly they've been simply an admission that such-and-such a feature was broken at their end, with no definite timetable for a fix.

PoolDoc

Glad I found this forum. I was just about to go with AIT for reselling!
... I shall be lurking....

Originally posted by PoPtarTs
Glad I found this forum. I was just about to go with AIT for reselling!
... I shall be lurking....


AIT sowed one year back. They are reaping still.
The old folks are right about this one.

Wing.

Hello all,

has anybody heard about AIT agreement where you must pay them at least for 6 months?
I just cancelled a reseller account with them. Now they told me that they changed the agreement sometime in september 2000 and sent an email notification, so if i agree for 6 months hosting than I do nothing, otherwise I could cancel the account at that time. I did not see any emails with such information. I also believe such important subject must be announced by phone, not by email. Anyway, they said that my last order was placed in November 2000, so the contract ends in April 2001. This is a lie, because i did not order anything in November except cancelling of one of my virtual hosts(in reality they continued to charge me for the cancelled host $2/month - not reallty a big deal) Their billing system is a mess.
The only response from them: "we sent a notification and by not responding you agreed to the contaract and must pay for 6 months".

Do you know any way to deal with them, and is there is any legality for them to change agreements on a web page and send email announcements which legally bind the receivers to the agreements? It just does not sound right for me.

Tim

PS: From my experiens and by reading this forum, i'm now totally convinced that I made the right thing: my own line and my own server, so the only people i can get pissed is myself and the ISP in case the line is down.

Check with the state attorney general's office for North Carolina, or with an attorney. I know that in some cases changes in terms like you describe have been held to be illegal in the sense that it takes active acknowledgement, not lack of notice, to effect a change in the relationship of that sort.

Since they lack a signed contract, you might be able to have a chargeback placed on your credit card.

Maybe there are losing so much business as people discover the truth about them that they try to hang on to their money for at least 6 months. For shared server hosting, it seems like an act of desperation.

Apathetic Incompetent Thieves

Well, these days anyone could get a customer with a good ad budjet. The only company I know that is very good and their size is equal to AITcom.net is Rackspace.com

they have a very good service...

pretty expensive though...

Yes, the agreement was changed in September. I didn't receive any notification either, though.

Just about every web host I've come across, and even in my own reselling Terms of Service, it says that the policies (TOS, AUP, etc.) may change from time to time and it is the customer's responsibility to review the terms. ...and that if the customer continues to use the services (e.g., not cancel) that is considered acceptance of the policies.

Essentially they are expecting customers to read the policies. :) Now AIT's happen to be in indecipherable legaleze and when printed are several pages long -- I mean just terrible. Right now I work with Ventures Online hosting and while they have several different policies, they are in plain English and I understand them.

What's more is I have always hated reading the fine print. Why bother... too long... don't feel like it... most of my host changes have been "crunch" issues where I research, find and sign up in <24 hours. I had set a timeline and that timeline did not include the hour to sit down and pour over the policies. I have always assumed they were "okay" or "legal" and had my interests protected. NOT SO. If a web host wants to lay claim to your firstborn, they can put that in a policy, legal or not. They can say what they want, and it's the consumer's cost to fight it, not theirs. :( I got burned on this point repeatedly and have paid several months' rent in fees just to be rid of my obligation to companies (according to their policies). Yes, me, the Queen of Principle, she who has "held out" for YEARS on issues (much to the chagrin of my family & credit rating) and yet I have won a very rare policy-related hosting issue. In most cases these things are pretty well tied up. After all, it is the host that is holding most of the cards (including my CC# and a paper trail supporting its use, to boot) ------- not us.

I too was burned by the September policy change, apparently there was some other billing change besides the one you mention, and they had me fair and square. I did not have a copy of the policies as they were when I signed up, and now the only version was the 9/2000 one on their site. I really had nothing to fight back with.

Given that it's March... next month is April... and resold domains are $2/month... cut your losses, pay the bill and get the hell outta there. If it was a $50 hosting contract you were getting prodded for that would be one thing. But if paying two bucks will get them off your case and speed the closing of the account, make the investment. Trust me, you do not want to get the harrassing phone calls, the SPAM from their system when they still consider you a "customer," etc. Granted you shouldn't have to get these things anyway, but is $2 really worth the big-league headaches and aggravation? It took me 4 months and >40 e-mails to nine "customer service managers" (now THAT is a joke -- CSM -- whatever!) to resolve a $60 billing issue with them -- and I had a great paper trail on it. In the end I still had to abide by the 9/2000 policy change... admittedly I had not been monitoring the policies... and that was my own fault. :( Bah!

Everybody hates it, but it's GOTTA be done... read those policies -- understand 'em -- know 'em. It has only taken me four years and six web hosts to figure this out. :) Now that I host other sites myself, I understand full-circle their importance. It's a shame they are even needed in the first place...... alas, this is not the world I grew up in.

:D Your friend,
>Bailey<

I noticed my original posting seems to have been truncated. The original can be seen here http://techcellence.net/files/ait.htm in its entirety.

[Edited by Duster on 03-08-2001 at 10:57 PM]

As I remember my contract law course (a long, long, time ago), a valid contract requires a 3-part test. One condition/test is that there has to be a meeting of minds. And, it does not matter why this test fails (does not matter who's fault it is).

If you agree in advance that some one may change the conditions of his own performance that is one thing but it is totally different for him to unilaterally change your performance (payment) without your specific knowledge and agreement. Before there can be a contract the other person must insure that you know/agree. Oh, well. What do I know!

Presented only for academic discussion. I am not a lawyer.

Gary

Yeah, i understand that i gotta come back to their site and read the agreement and print it out every month...
Anyway i still do not get AIT's logic.
I called them again and talked to billing support. The guy was much friendlier than the previous ones and seemed to understand that they are not doing right when amusing their customers with wonderful contracts. He said he doesnot have the authority to change charges, so I asked him to get transferred to their manager(who got the authority). She spoke with me like a robot reading a manual. "We notified all customers in September. The agreement is online. Customers can check it anytime." It looks like they just learned few standard dumb phrases to make customers stop calling them with "stupid" billing questions.

Assuming that the agreement was in effect since september,
I still cannot understand why the hell they start counting from November! I was subscribed to them from July, and even if we admit the september agreement, then the latest month should be february, not April. While it doesnot make sense for me, it sure does make sense for AIT. In their opinion they can charge me for two more months.

And it's interesting, one AIT person said it's because I placed an order in November(of course i did not order anything in november), and another(the manager) said something like "because we said so and we sent a notification to you that you have two months to cancel before November". Of course I did not see any notification like that.

Maybe i should call them third time to hear a third story.

I know it maybe wasting of time, not much money($140 for two months), but i'll try to get CC chargeback and will put a site like http://techcellence.net/files/ait.htm
so maybe some others will not loose money.

AIT just doesnot realize that by acting their way they are gonna loose much more than taking $140 from me.

I would not be surprized if AIT will insert 12 or 24 months in their agreement page and makes another move to keep money from leaving customers. Great business model: customers do not use your serveice but continue to pay!

Ewww, I didn't realize it was that much!

Is this contract pre-paid, or are they billing you monthly?

And if you have a full paper trail, print it up and send it to the BBB with a letter of complaint. You can file a complaint online but it won't have all the supporting documentation. So you can get the ball rolling online but then pen/type a letter with the specific complaint and supporting info.

Then, e-mail the billing manager. Her e-mail address is on their website in the support/contact area, I believe. If you sound extraordinarily irked you will get more results, than not. Lay out the whole situation, step by step. Tell her you have copies of everything and also offer to send her a copy of the BBB complaint.

In the meantime... and I know that some people are afraid of this, but it worked like a charm on my end... go in the billing section and change your CC#. Just switch a couple numbers around. They won't figure it out. This precludes any further charges (so you don't have to worry about now hassling with chargebacks, which you might not successfully get).

Make sure you go thru their cancellation process letter for letter. The fax, everything. Then climb all over that billing mgr., explain to her you do not authorize their service or any further charges. You do not authorize further use of your credit card and since you will not be paying for service they may as well cancel your accounts. :)

What seemed to really crack the case for me was complaining that the service was substandard and not meeting my needs. I wasn't getting what I wanted and expected for my $$ and I wanted to cancel this poor service. They really didn't seem to want to keep an unhappy customer, once I started to pick at their service.

Anyway these are just suggestions, I don't know what might work best in your situation but here's a couple of ideas.

I don't agree with their policies or set-up either, I didn't receive any notification :) so you're not alone. That's why I got the heck outta there. It sounds like you've got enough documentation to fight the good fight. Go get 'em. :)

:D Bailey

Hi! I used you idea. It worked so far. Thanks.
I just got a message from AITCOM telling that if I don't provide my CC#, my account could expirience problems.... I don't understand what their problem is. I cancelled the account more than a month ago....
The second news is that I got a letter from my bank that they are gonna credit my CC account back.
If they manage to charge me again I'll work on the second charge back even though it takes time to fill papers! Everybody must do this whenever they get charged for no service.
What really amazes me, once *** lost access to my money, they became very attentive and polite while asking for more money. From my last conversation with them I would never expect they'd call me "Dear *** customer" again:-) Interesting, once they charge you, you are not "Dear" anymore, you become a stupid customer with stupid problems.

regards,

Tim






----------------------------------------------------------
Dear *** Customer,

We understand there are many reasons why a credit card is DECLINED data entry error, invalid expiration date, or credit card use restrictions. We realize that it is possibly an oversight, and our goal is to resolve this in a timely manner. It is extremely important that you contact us immediately to resolve this issue. Your site could experience an interruption in service if your account remains past due for an extended amount of time. Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.
----------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone know if they are good with webstores? I have looked in many forums for different companies. I just need one that will host a webstore. I don't have a physical store yet. I have been recomended a few. Everytime I look them up something bad is said. Who to trust?. I was down to *** and Interland. Interland charges more for ecommerce it seems. Are they any good? *** has free ecommerce. Do any of you know this to be otherwise? PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Michelle

Interland and A-I-T have equally bad reputations. Keep looking.

My AIT horror story.

I signed up for AIT because I liked:

* the fact that I could install custom Perl modules
* access to the server configuration
* good features

Almost from Day one it was a horror story. Their form allowed me to submit an order as a Premium Reseller without buying a domain name.

When I inquired a day later why I hadn't heard anything, I was told my order was voided because I needed to list a domain name. I figured they could have contacted me by email and let me know there was a problem with my order.

When I did get my details the username and password did not work. This required a call to straighten up. I did this at 3 am in the morning and the call was promptly answered and taken care of. This was a good sign.

Three weeks after joining I needed to log in through Telnet. I discovered my username and password didn't work.

I put a Trouble ticket in to see why and got this:

"To obtain telnet access, you will need to fill out the application form at the following URL:

http://aitcom.net/selfhelp/telnet/

After you complete it, please print, sign, and fax it to us at 1-910-485-2831. Your application will be reviewed, and you will have a response within 3 to 7 business days."

I wasn't happy about this, and told them that it would have been nice to have been told this when my account was set up.


For Telnet access I had to:

* fax a 4 page application in
* provide my ISP name and phone number
* give employer name and phone number
* give Bank Name, account number and phone number
* explain WHY I wanted it.
* I also had to say that I would not "send your Login Name and Password via email, this itself is a very unsecure method."

They said they would contact me by phone with the username and password. This they didn't do. 3 weeks later when I called, they said they sent it to Rogers@Home.com (my ISP is Rogers@home) instead of my email address which was CLEARLY marked.

After applying for Telnet I experienced this problem: (from my request)

"I'm getting the following message in my error logs anytime I use the module DBI (or even check for it's presence) (This has happened in three different programs)

Could you let me know if it's installed correctly.

perl: error in loading shared libraries
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i686-linux/auto/DBI/DBI.so: undefined symbol: __bzero"

I got this back:

"I have copied the shared libraries that DBI needs to operate correctly. Since you did not specify a page that is giving the error, I will need you to test your page, and let us know if this corrected the problem or not."

Unfortunately, the shared library they used was corrupted so they had to rebuild it from scratch. (Then when I was moved to a new server, the same thing happened)

This was fixed, then I went to use MySQL and it doesn't work.

This was their response "The reason you are receiving the error is MySQL is not installed for you. If you would like for us to install it for you, please reply back to this ticket and let us know."

Then I try to use PHP and it doesn't work. I get this back "I have activated your PHP, you should be able to use that without any trouble now."

At this point, I sent them a message saying it would be nice to know when you set up your account that you must notify them if you want to:

* set up telnet, PHP or MySQL

This would avoid a lot of wasted time.

Backing up, I continued to experience numerous times where the sites would go down for 5 minutes at a time. This would often happen more than 8 times a day.

A sample trouble ticket:

"It's 12:52 and all my sites have gone down again.

I can access FTP and email.

at 12:57 they are back up again. I understand that the inetd shuts down for 5 minutes under excessive load.

Unfortunately this is happening a lot. I'd like to know if I can get my sites moved to a server that has less load on it."

Answer: "I have thoroughly tested your site and I could not duplicate this error. "

Of course they can't. It's intermittent. The ticket even said the sites were back up.

The same day "

It's 3:13 p.m. I can log in by ftp and email.

WWW does not allow access. My customer told me that just before this happened, the site was super slow and then it shut down.

The problem started again at 3:00. A few minutes later the site was up and then down again.

I know that when you get this it will be back up. I'm sending this in so you'll be able to determine who is causing such a load to shut down the server.
"
continued.

Response: "Currently our network is experiencing routing problems. As a result you may notice a significant decrease in network performance. We are working with our Networking Administrators to resolve the problem. We do not expect this delay to last much longer."

I'm thinking, "Good" they've acknowledged the problem and it will be fixed.

Another complaint "It is not just me that is experiencing this, a customer who lives hundreds of miles away has the same thing happen. Also netwhistle.com tests the site from two servers. If both are refused, I'm notified.

I would like to get my site moved to another server. This has been going on for a week now and it's totally unacceptable. I've had multiple sites for 5 years now and I know how often they should be done.

So, I have no choice, I need to get to a more reliable server or I'm going to lose my customers."

I did get moved. BUT I continued to experience the same problems.

Another response to the same problem "I was able to bring your sites back up. I assure that we are currently working on a permanent solution to this. Thank you for contacting us about the problem. If you have any further questions, please contact us."

That sounds like they are aware of a problem.

Another notice to them "I am sending this in so you have a trail of the times my server was not working correctly.

Approximately 1:20 p.m. today I called Tech Support and was unable to access my sites. (Same with my customers) While speaking to Tech Support they said that another person on the server had the same problem.

Currently while writing this, response time is very sluggish. This is checked by calling a CGI script on the server.

This problem started this morning. Server has been up and down for the past few hours. It will go out for 5 minutes and then come back. Then 15 minutes it will be out again."

This problem contined until I cancelled.

My customers noticed these problems immediately as they were actively building their sites. I would call tech support and be told things like:

* the server is rebooting
* inetd is causing this
* yes someone else on your server has just called about the same thing
* We had great hopes for Server 69, but it's causing a lot of problems.
* can you send a ticket in so we can document the problems and send to our superiors.
* it must be a problem with your connection

When I experienced technical problems some technicians seem to be given me honest information, others were humouring me.

I told them it wasn't just me experiencing the problem, but clients. I also sent trace routes in and did traceroutes through http://www.traceroute.org.

I also told them that I've had hosting accounts since 94 so I know what is/isn't normal. I also support numerous sites for clients so I know the usual things to check before I assume it's on their end.

This continued on and on.

Then a client wanted to get a Secure Certificate. I got this reply "Unfortunately that is not a service that is available to your customers directly. Secure Certificate is only available to you as the Top Level Domain and then the top level domain can distribute permissions to their virtual host as they chooses. You can find more information about a Secure Certificate at the following url:

http://aitcom.net/security.htm"

I can't blame them for this, but I wish this was made clearer up front.


Another problem that occured:

"All my customers domains are giving this error:

Please Contact Technical Support
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

Response: "I have corrected the problem with the virtual hosts and checked to insure that they are all resolving correctly in a browser."

That's fine, it was a problem on their end and they didn't try to get out of it.

Finally the straw that broke the camels back. All MySQL databases experienced this: "DBI->connect failed: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (111) at .."

Tech Support says "The reason that you are getting this error is because your MySQL daemon has stopped. What you need to do is restart the daemon using either the safe_mysql command or the mysqld command."

Problem - I haven't received my Telnet access yet. I call to get it and I'm told that only one person can give it to me and he's not there. I ask them if they will reboot the MySQL server and they say they can't. I have to do it.

So all databases on my client's sites don't work, but I don't have my Telnet info. At that point I contacted all my clients and told them that I'm moving to a new hosting provider as I can't tolerate this any more.

What was really annoying is that I was a few weeks away from colocating a server with them. AIT has a great offer "AIT can build you a solution or you can co-locate a Cobalt RaQ Server with no setup fee and only $99 monthly."

That would have saved me a considerable amount of money. But with what I experienced, I wouldn't consider it.

When I told AIT that I was cancelling my hosting, I received an email that stated that I should wait for 4 months to send it in as I have to pay for a 6 month term. That was the first I heard of that.

(The duration or Initial Term of this Agreement is for six (6) consecutive months beginning on the date of application, but AIT will allow the Customer to pay for the six months of services in six monthly installments. Subsequent Terms shall be for six month periods.)


I spoke to someone in Billing who said "Well it's in our Agreement." When I mentioned that they haven't fulfilled their end of the agreement (the 99.9% uptime) he told me that they don't have to because that's only mentioned in the ads and not listed as a guarantee in the agreement.

I told them that I would not be paying for the remaining 4 months and said goodbye. Then I contacted the FTC and gave them the details.

They told me that AIT can not make claims like 99.9% uptime and "With AIT's shared hosting solutions you pay month-to-month because we are confident that our sustained commitment to value, service, performance and reliability will earn and keep your business each and every month" and then claim that they don't have to honor them because it's not in the agreement.

I have tried to keep this as accurate as possible by quoting from their website and my trouble tickets.

So if you are thinking of AIT, caveat emptor.

Jer

Originally posted by Jer2001
Response: "Currently our network is experiencing routing problems. As a result you may notice a uptime and "With AIT's shared hosting solutions you pay month.

So if you are thinking of AIT, caveat emptor.

Jer

wow, your story is much more horrible than mine(i posted info here a couple of months ago). I wonder how you managed to survive so many problems.
when I had their service, I needed telnet as well. I even filled their application form. But the problem was ... their fax machine did not accept faxes when i tried to submit the application....
They also kindof offered SSL server for customers use. But they did not allow any custom CGIscript to run there except only one wich was preinstalled there.
I guess their service is ok only if you want to host websites which do not require anything except serving static html pages. If you go beyond that - than you better use something else.
Do not give up on payments - if you pay with credit card, get chargebacks!!! and change you credit card info on their website, so they wont charge you after you cancelled. I saved 2 payments($140) they wanted to charge me for nothing, and they are still sending me emails with "promotions" and asking to pay for webhosting which I cancelled 3 months ago..

regards,

Tim

I spoke to someone in Billing who said "Well it's in our Agreement." When I mentioned that they haven't fulfilled their end of the agreement (the 99.9% uptime) he told me that they don't have to because that's only mentioned in the ads and not listed as a guarantee in the agreement. I don't really have anything to add to that. Just thought it important that anyone reading this doesn't miss that important paragraph!

Good that you talked to the FTC, but unfortunately they're not likely to do anything. I'd also file a complaint with the BBB. They won't really do anything either, but at least there'll be a record on file about these fraudulent practices, and potential customers are more likely to check there than with the FTC.

There's always the good old attorney-general's office of the state in which AIT is located. Just a thought.

Inregards to the 'by not responding to this email you agree to...' the rules are different from country to country but a case in point in my country (Canada) a local cable company tried that a few years back by giving away some specialty fee channels for free for a week or so and inlcuded a little small print message on your next cable bill that stated in basics that by not calling their 1-800 number you agree to subscribe to the channels at $xx.xx per channel.

This is known as reverse subscribition and is illegal in my neck of the woods. I am not a lawyer so do not take my advice on anything but if you were to challange the bill and it ended up in court I have a feeling that they would resolve the situation to your favor before it gets be for a judge.

Ofcourse you should talk to a lawyer about these matters to find out the legals of it all, but I would think that you would have a very strong cases. Another point incase is a franchise that I once owned use to do stuff like that time to time. During one regional meeting I broke out the company credit card and started feeding the CEO drinks and after a few rounds he actual told me that over 50% of the franchise agreement would most likely not stand up in court and is is merely a tatic to force the store owners to go along with what Head Office wanted to do, hoping the owners would not know better and do things under the assumption that they had no choice since they signed this 200+ page aggrement. :smokin:

Originally posted by Dollac
[B]Inregards to the 'by not responding to this email you agree to...' the rules are different from country to country but a case in point in my country (Canada) a

I think in this case it doesnot even matter if that legal or not. here are just few reasons:
1) I am not obligated to read all emails
2) Email delivery is not guaranteed, just by internet nature
3) AIT (adv internet tech company :-( never sent such email about contract change anyway.... or maybe i did not receive it. And many other people did not receive it either.

so I don't even care if that's legal or not, and most likely it's iltegal.

If they did it in writing and calling people then it would be acceptable. I aksed them why they did not do that, they said they have too many customers and cannot afford it or do not wanna bother calling/writing each customer....
Letteraly they mean they don't realy care about customers...

:confused:

I don't understand your problems with AITCOM. I have been with them since March of 2000. They offered mSQL and some neat other things. John Horton talked me into trying Linux unstead of NT (I like Linux now).
Heck I put together a linux box devoted 100's hour to learning mSQL. Try from March until I got this message in December

**********************:cartman:
************************

f you need to followup on this support request, please proceed to the following URL:
http://support.aitcom.net/support

and submit a Trouble Ticket which references the ticket number in the subject line of this email.
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Hello,

Msql has known issues / bugs on our invironment. We recommend using MySQL as it is a much more stable solution. Tech Support can install MySql on request.

Thanks for hosting with AIT!
M. Jay Wilcox
Systems Administration


Thanks for hosting with Advanced Internet Technologies, Inc
support@aitcom.net
1-877-209-5184(Tech), 1-877-209-5185(Billing), (910) 321-1390(Fax)
Check the status of a previously submitted ticket at http://support.aitcom.net/support


---------- In Reply To -------------

Msql will not start or stay started
**************************************
**************************************:bawling:

They still advertise mSQL and MySQL (http://aitcom.net/virtual.htm) and they know it don't work. You see nice honest folks there.


Well never to be defeated I sign up for thier MySQL . After a few weeks actually had the Perl Libaries installed I needed. Perl Scripts that are already suppose to be there (http://aitcom.net/support/library/What_modules_are_installed_with_Perl_5.00502_.html)

It is really nice sometimes it runs 2-3 days without me having to restart it. So I only have to check in the morning and when I get home from work and before I go to bed. But sometimes that isn't enough and I get a complaint about my sites. Not bad.

Please note additional benfits I have recieved from AITCOM include the billing issues, deleting a null file or something every friday for several months killing email. Moving my site with notifying me. Untold number of [Save Results] from Frontpage after things worked.

Anyway I am moving away from them thanks for the heads up on the billing practices. I moved to Rackspace but I don't see thier support as a great thing. However, I need much less support now (I would have needed even less if AIT had quit helping me).

He's not answering the phone, neither the emails I've sent to him.
Practically, noone is answering any complaint.

I am a web host reseller. I was using AIT in North
Carolina for 3 years. Yes, I put up with their abuse for 3 long years. I suspect that AIT bilked me out of hundreds of dollars by their billing
methods. The billing was always so confusing I could not figure it out most of the time. I caught
them red handed many times, billing me 6 months after a domain had been deleted. Customer service
and technical support are practically non existant. I have used 6 hosting companies. This one was even worse than Interland in Atlanta. AIT
is the worst business I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. I never got a straight answer on anything. Their Servers are slow too. It was only when I was leaving that they put in the charm. MOst of the time they just did not answer
support requests or whenthey did it was such a stupid answer that one would wonder what was going on there. Stay far away from this one!

if you dont really trust whoever has posted against AIT, just read this by BBB:

http://www.carolina.bbb.org/report.html?compid=11001845&national=Y

If after that you can't realize how bad AIT can be for you and your business, its your problem.

You know that feeling of disgust and anger once you feel like you been robbed!

I had two of my babies ( 2 Boxs ) Stolen from me by a Co Lo company in the United States some 2 years ago due to a disagreemnt on billing, im planning my revenge next year when i will be in the states for a Holiday!

Im tracking there every move every new customer they have i know about... And the worst thing is im looking at the servers infos and its at least one of my machines there using for shared hosting at the moment!

I will not mention any name due to the fact it will be held against me as evidence !!!

Regards to all!

Last week I registered a domain name and put up a scathing story of fraud that AIT had perpetrated on me and my company bu charging our credit cardlong after we had cancelled services. I then sent all of the executives an email stating that I hoped they would like my new site and gave them the URL. Within an hour the Director of Operations was on the phone and returned all of our money the same day. No hassle whatsoever. Now they want to buy the domain name and have offered me money right out of the stall.

Vance Redden

AITCOM took my money and never recieved it, made my sites go down, billed a closed account, made it as hard as possible to cancel my account and charged me for domains I don't own or host.

AITCOM.NET is completely incompetent, deceptive and dishonest. I used AITCOM for a couple years without problem until a few months ago. Apparently they installed a new gateway for credit card transactions. And apparently this new gateway did an address verification on transactions. For some reason they could not take my money anymore after installing the new gateway. I had resellers accounts that I could no longer use as a result. All of my websites eventually went down and they said they couldn't process my transactions. I had clients calling me asking why their sites weren't up anymore.

-Checking Account Problem #1
It wasn't so much as they couldn't take my money, is that they tried to take my money but put it in limbo. I usually paid for this directly from my personal checking account. They'd try to process my card, the bank would approve the transaction but they would reject as a result of inconsistency in what the bank had for my address (a very simple address) and what they had on file. So one day they tried 5 times to withdraw funds resulting in 5X what I owed being put into limbo. The funds returned after 24 hours but during that time I was unable to get to my own money. This resulted other creditors getting insuffient funds replies. So they were trying everyday to take money from me, failing every time, making it so I could not get to my own personal money. A couple days after this started I had a vacation to Colorado to go snowboarding and I went to take the cash from my account and I had less than $100. After being told it'd go back into my account I went to Colorado with what I had assuming I'd be able to get to that money after 24 hrs. HA HA no such luck. I was stranded in Colorado without a dime. Good thing for friends. Just before heading home I checked my account and there was money back in it.

These failed transactions never showed up on my statements and it left me wondering why my balance was going up and down without deposits or withdrawals.

After several heated calls to AITCOM trying to get my sites back up and get my money back they completely failed every time. Every time I called it was back to square 1, someone would say, let me try, and they'd in effect put my money in limbo every time. I'd ask for a manager and they'd say, "oh, they just stepped out" I'd explain and say, "don't try it, it'll put my money in limbo", yet they wouldn't listen and would do it again. Eventually I was able to speak with one manager and he told me it was all my fault, then hung up on me.

-Canceling your account, good luck
After getting a new host they insisted I still owed them for the hosting that they weren't providing anymore. They kept charging me even though I wanted to cancel my accounts. It's very easy to sign up with them but next to impossible to cancel. The page they have for canceling accounts just wasn't functioning. So finally after more calls, I was able to cancel my account. They make it as difficult to cancel your account as possible.

The only way you can cancel your account with AITCOM.net is to fax them your cancellation, I don't have a fax and I've sent including this one, one fax in the last 5 years, so needless to say it wasn't easy.

Ok, so I thought this account is closed.

-Billing a Closed Account
4 days after officially closing my account I get a notification that the original transaction that started this whole mess had gone through...on a closed account, and they were charging me for it.

-Charged for noname.com
Then I checked my billing invoice, apparently they had been charging me for hosting 'noname.com'. I don't own nor host noname.com but they sure charged me for it. I wanted to audit my records and see how long they had been charging me but they don't allow you to see your own billing before a few months ago, and they sure never sent me any email or snailmail bills.
This is stealing and fraud.

So as a result of their incompetence I got negative responses from clients, my sites were down, I had to change hosts, (which I found a cheaper option) and had to close my checking account and open a new one to keep their dirty little fingers out.

Thanks alot AITCOM.NET, you guys really really suck!

We left AIT After 3 years of hell, it was the best thing we ever did. We pay less, have more features, better security, and no abusive techs.

As a matter of fact we have not had a single problem with our new server.

We were sending tickets to AIT at least weekly. Most of the time the response was a joke.

AIT is by far the worst hosting company out there!

I just cancelled my account with AIT and would never ever recommend them to anyone. I'm too exhaused to go into details right now after been on the phone with them for an hour or so (again), but in a nut shell - poor reliability, incompetent tech support, outrageous billing practices. Run like a wind!:angry:

Originally posted by Shoto
I just cancelled my account with AIT and would never ever recommend them to anyone. I'm too exhaused to go into details right now after been on the phone with them for an hour or so (again), but in a nut shell - poor reliability, incompetent tech support, outrageous billing practices. Run like a wind!:angry:

Try to change your CC information or they will bill you for several month after you cancelled your account.

:cool:

Can anyone refer a good attorney in North Carolina who has been successful in taking on AIT. I have numerous issues and need a good lawyer there who is familiar with them.

Thanks.

Mark Bianchi
Dayton Internet
look for http://www.aitsucks.net coming soon!

i believe you can call your CC company and tell them to refuse charges from AIT (or any company for that matter).

Words cannot describe how awful AIT.com has been to use as a hosting company. I highly suggest to stay away from AIT.com to anyone and everyone.

Hey All.

After all the frustrations I have had with AIT over the past year, I decided to put up a site dedicated to airing my dissatisfaction with AIT. (http://www.aitsucks.net.) I consider it my First Amendment Right to do so, but it seems as though AIT is not much interested in the First Amendment. I received a cease and desist today. Feel free to look it over and give me your feedback:

"This letter will address your willful infringement of our company's registered trademark and domain name, your failure to pay monies owed to this company, and your checks repeatedly returned for insufficient funds.

Advanced Internet Technologies ("AIT"), is the owner of the famous trademark "AIT," registered in the United States in connection with hosting and
implementing web sites and offering related internet services. AIT has used this mark for more than six years and has expended substantial time and money to build up extensive consumer recognition and goodwill in its mark.

It has come to our attention that you have registered and are using the domain name "AITSUCKS.NET." Your use of the AIT mark in your domain name is likely to confuse and mislead the public. Such unauthorized use of a trademark constitutes federal trademark infringement and unfair competition under both federal and state law. In addition, your use of the "AITSUCKS.NET" domain name will dilute our mark. AIT takes such conduct very seriously and will act to ensure the full protection of its rights in this famous and valuable mark.

Moreover, by registering and using the "AIT COMSUCKS" domain name, you are engaging in "cybersquatting" --- an illegal diluting use of a trademark. Federal trademark law has been recently amended to specifically identify anyone who, with a bad faith intent, registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that is identical, confusingly similar, or dilutive of another trademark as liable to the owner of the mark in a civil action. The attempt in your site to claim a "fair use" exception provides no excuse or defense.

Further, based on the records of your communications with AIT, some of the statements appearing on your web site regarding AIT are absolutely false and defamatory.

AIT hereby directs you to immediately cease and desist all use of the AIT mark, or any other name or mark confusingly similar thereto, including the
use of "AITSUCKS.NET" in the domain name. AIT is prepared to exercise its full legal rights, including seeking damages, should you not provide full cooperation in this matter. Your failure to comply with the terms of this letter could expose your company, and possibly yourself personally, to
claims of intentional infringement, including a trebling of damages and attorneys fees.

We recognize the existence of a billing dispute between you and this company, in the amount of $465.94. (The formerly reported amount of $673.98 was an administrative error on our part, which we have promptly corrected.)

Simply put, you owe us money, and you apparently want to avoid paying it. Three of your checks have been returned for insufficient funds.

Nonetheless, a billing dispute can and should be resolved without resort to unlawful conduct. Your recent action in setting up a defamatory website provides us with evidence of willful trademark infringement, and also evidence of an intent to inflict commercial damage intentionally on this company, rather than resolve a billing dispute.

Please contact me at legal@aitcom.net before 5:00 pm EST on Wednesday, August 14, 2002, confirming that you have ceased further infringing use of the AIT mark. If we do not hear from you by that time, we will assume that you are unwilling to resolve this matter out of court, and AIT will take all appropriate steps to protect its rights.

You may pay the money you owe by contacting Ms. Moore at smoore@aitcom.net, or by calling her at 910-321-1306.

Sincerely,

ADVANCED INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

James H. Baker
General Counsel

Holy .. talk about digging up old threads

Some of what that weasal Baker is saying might be true, in a specific context, but if you have the funds, I would suggest you contact a lawyer yourself. This Intellectual Property stuff can get very tricky, but I am sure there is some kind of a clause that allows you to use part of the name of a company you are trying to bring attention to for breach of service. But be sure you are pretty sure they breached the contract first in one way or another before proceeding to spend your money.

Hell they are not called aitsucks.net after all are they? They should be, but thats another point. So how the heck can they even send you a cease and desist order for owning and operating a domain like this? I would immediately file a counter-suite claiming harrassment... but I am not a lawyer... I know this for sure that you can use the name (even if it is registered and trademarked) and even links to specific parts of their site/network in your website to clarify your point of view. If that was illegal, the WWW, as we know it, could never exist. Just do not use thier actual logo or language from their site without properly quoting the source.

I am in the process of suing them big time. I have found sponsors and lawyers and lets see what happens. I want to bring this bunch of con artists crashing to the pits of hell.

*wink*
Hope this helps.

Just spread the word as far as you can. Anyone looking for hosting - STAY AWAY FROM AIT !

Thanks, AniG.

From the legal advice I have gotten thusfar, you are correct. I can use aitsuck.net as long as I am not cybersquatting, using their logos or copyrighted material, or attempt to mislead users into thinking that they are at the actual AIT website. I do none of the above.

The precedence is there. There are sucks sites all over the web. Check out:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Issues_and_Causes/Consumer_Advocacy_and_Information/Consumer_Opinion/Individual_Companies/ . These are just a few of the sucks sites out there.

I would be interested in talking to any attorney that you have found. I have a short list of attorneys who are good at this kind of thing but if you have someone who is already familiar with AIT, that would help.

BTW: I did respond to Baker. You can see the response here:
http://www.aitsucks.net/email/28.htm.

Thanks for your posts and encouraging words. Keep up the good fight!

Dayton

Ok so AIT now has my domain name, they took it last month

oh well I could just surrender and hope that still treat prisoners of war well in the AIT stulag camps.
BUT
I'm not going down fighting (I have contacted a lawyer)
AIT beware you realy ticked off the wrong Aussie
I will not be treated they way I have been over the last 6 months...
I'll keep the board informed of my progress

I won't go into details for obvious reasons but as soon as I win the case you guys will be the first to know. I might even get rich by charging each of AIT's customers $1.00 for the secret of how I won the AIT wars
heheheheh

For last 6 months I have been hosting with hivelocity.net
they look pretty new and there was some issues when I first setup with them but they have always strived to fix the problem in fact it is extrememly hard to get them OFF the phone sometimes. They call me on some issues and I live in Hawaii... I think the tech guru wants a holiday.

Aloha

Originally posted by aussieguy
I live in Hawaii


:D

Do you know my next question ;)

did anybody else fall for their deceptive sales and 6 month lock in? I just cancelled with them and went to httpme.com and now they call and tell me that I'm just at the beginning of a 6 month window and have to continue to pay them!!

Please, can anybody point me in a direction to get rid of them? I left because they're pretty incompetent in tech support and invoicing, and their prices are too high. But this is just a joke. I'm waiting for a call back by a supervisor, if they don't clear this up I'll first stop payment with my credit card immediately and then contact the BBB at least.

Do not host with them! Ever!

well, they are so generous to offer me a downgrade to the 7.99 mini hosting now, how nice.

Funny thing, the person I talked to was actually quite nice and understanding, and I'm sure she did not hear this for the first time.

Interesting: I'll have my mini account now, but I can't go on Monday and cancel it, I have to do that within those 30 days in February! I guess their system can't remember things longer than 30 days?

I'm still exploring my legal options, any pointers are more than welcome.

Really sad, as I'd been thinking about using them again in the future once I have larger sites for customers.

You'd think they are interested in happy customers, at least more than that monthly fee. Bad reputations are so much harder and expensive to get rid of....

:angry:

Impressive.. This thread started over two and a half years ago, and people still have complaints about their service. That's gotta be some kind of record here :)

Not to make light of your current issue with AIT of course Oliver.

Greg Moore

AIT has broken many records, bigest scam artists ever!

http://www.aitsucks.net

well just find a lawyer also do a chargeback on your cc, it works pretty well, if the take your servers, chargeback everything, also get a lawyer, anyone wanna class action?

Oliver,

Even you stop payment on your Credit Card and notify your CC company to not allow payments to AIT period, keep in mind according to their contract they will take over your domain name (the one you got your account with them) if you don't pay them the minimum 6 month due! So if you don't care about your domain go ahead and cancel payment immediately and inform your bank/credit card company. Else, seek a lawyer who will probably tell you pay up since legally once you sign up an account with them, you agree to all the terms of their bull**** contract.

Originally posted by AniG
Oliver,

Even you stop payment on your Credit Card and notify your CC company to not allow payments to AIT period, keep in mind according to their contract they will take over your domain name (the one you got your account with them) if you don't pay them the minimum 6 month due!



how exactly would they do that? I already moved the domain to a different host, and the name hosting to a different company (in process right now)

they offered me to scale down to the smalles plan now (still have to see the new IP that I'll supposedly get) and if I can't get rid of them I'll just post a lot of info there.... :D

Well, the took my domain name. They run an ICANN approved registry (!!!) and they will forcebly transfer the domain (from the current registrar) to NameIt.net/AITdomains.com and appoint themselves the owner of the domain. Thats how! And it all is legal (kinda) since you agreed to their contract when you signed up for an account there.

Won't help to post a lotta stuff on your new site if you dont have a domain, now would it :). There are a lotta sites cropping up detailing AIT's theivery. BUt has it slowed them down? I think not. Only a class action suit may bring some results.

Originally posted by AniG
Well, the took my domain name. They run an ICANN approved registry (!!!) and they will forcebly transfer the domain (from the current registrar) to NameIt.net/AITdomains.com and appoint themselves the owner of the domain.

ouch! I am surprised they can do this, but I guess you can hide all kinds of things in a contract.

What a strange company. But eventually word will get around. It's not really worth my time to run against them for $70, I'll just host some music or park some files there till Feb. But I certainly won't send anybody their way, which I would still have done had they been more customer friendly. I am constantly asked for good hosts and refer larger sites to good companies, smaller ones I host myself. So in the end it's AIT's loss, as I won't send anybody their way.

BTW, this is not the only thing that's wrong with them, there are several things listed on the account descriptions as included, but if you want them they cost. Supposedly it varies from line to line what that check mark means. I had a whole conversation with them about that. Actually via that very annoying chat box that now pops up if you're on their home page. (actually a nice and easy way to tell them what you think of their service)

that lady I talked to actually admited that it's misleading and she told management several times about it. I wonder if she's still working there....

What ever you do, don't host with AIT---

Wow, now this is an energizer thread that keeps going and going

Simply amazing. Two and a half years and they appear to be just the same.

Good luck peoples.

Did a search on WHT about this company (see below for why) and sure wish I did it before I even wasted my time.

We had indivudual(s) who made several attempts to fraudulently obtain hosting with us over the last few months using stolen credit card info and attempts to mask their source IP for the orders. Finally let them open an account just to see what they were up to.

Long story made short ... we shut them down after reviewing the files. Basically involved hacking other sites using a web-based telnet program to mask their origin.

Did a follow-up today and saw the domain had moved to aitcom.net. Even though they are competitors, I detest/hate/etc little scammers, so thought I would call up aitcom.net and give them a heads up. The operator at aitcom.net took the info (I provided some details and asked to talk to a supervisor) and she placed me on hold. She came back a few moments later and said they were not interested and the company did not want to discuss the matter whatsoever. :eek:

I can understand a company having concerns about customer privacy, but add this to the incompetent area of this thread. To place a block of IPs (and associated customers) on your system in risk because of hackers is insane.

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(Note to moderator - if there is a better place to post the below info, please let me know. If, for some reason I am providing info that should not be on the forum I apologies and understand if you must delete)

To the hosts out there that actually do care about what is going on with their systems, here is some info we have tracked regarding this customer. Sure they will be moving in the next few months after aitcom.net finds out they will not be getting paid:

Domain name : anakjelek.com

Uses email drops associated with:

opetsim.com
dreamkidz.net
furt.tv

Orders may appear to come from a NC based IP they have hacked(theapostles.org IP: 206.96.226.98 ... we tried to notify them as well but had no interest), but are actually from:

person: HINET Network-Center
address: CHTD, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd.
address: Data-Bldg. 6F, No. 21, Sec. 21, Hsin-Yi Rd.,
address: Taipei Taiwan 100

(Note: traced some activity to an IP in Indonesia, but could not confirm).

AIT is absolutely the WORST hosting company you can find!

Their top management makes no secret about the fact that they like to fleece people. They got me for four hundred dollars (most in unauthorized charges to my credit card!) and cost a client their entire business!

They are incompetent and dishonest.

You are warned - stay away!

I am another of those dissatisfied customers who after 3 years of hosting with Aitcom am leaving at the end of October. But not before I also had my share of battles with billing & their dreadful tech support people, most of whom are barely trained on computers and tell you the most absurd things.

I had a reseller account and Ait has a 'hidden' contract they never show you that essentially forces you to be on a 6-month contract. If you cancel before the end of any 6-month period, they continue to bill you for the rest of the months. I discovered this fact not from them, rather from another disgruntled customer who began emailing all Ait customers about his plight. This gentleman lost many web sites which indeed were taken over by Aitcom.

My biggest dilemma now is which new hosting company to go with. I've tried NoMonthly.com, Parcom.net and Aitcom. None satisfy me for 24/7, responsible, knowledgable, helpful Tech Support.

I also note that the *top* companies are asking for a set-up fee. Why pay a setup fee when there are hundreds if not thousands of companies who don't charge one?

Suggestions?

Hi Icaru,

I have been in that AIT hell as well and can completely sympathise with your dilemma. I don't know if it is appropriate to put this information here, but I moved to VenturesOnline.com from AIT and my experience with them has been heavenly. You should go and check out some of the Web Hosts that advertise on these forums and try posting queries on their customer forums. Try getting information on the web hosts from their own customers, to get the right idea about their service.

Good luck.